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The story of Tchaikovsky's melodrama is based on the life of Iolanda, daughter of King Renato of Napoli.
Iolanda married her cousin Federico II, conte di Vaudemont in 1445.
The marriage was a dynastic alliance, arranged by Iolanda's father to end the dispute which existed between Renato of Anjou and Frederick's father, Antonio di Vaudémont, regarding the succession to the Ducato of Lorena.
Beyond these facts, the play is fictional.
The Count of Vaudémont's given name is altered from "Federico II" to "Tristan".
The central conceit of Iolanda's blindness is possibly invented.
Subjects related to the court of Renato were familiar in the Romantic and Victorian period.
René had been idealised in the Romantic era as a poet-king, whose court in Provenza was a genteel haven of literature, architecture and art in a violent era.
This image was first popularised in Walter Scott's 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein.
The portrayal of Iolanda in Hertz's play as a saintly dreaming beauty (regularly placed in an entranced sleep by the physician) was immensely popular.
The play was translated into other languages.
There were several English translations, including by Jane Frances Chapman (1845) and Theodore Martin (1850).
The heroine's name was retained from the original as "Iolanda".
The piece was produced in London several times, including at the Strand Theatre in 1849.
Later by Charles Kean at the Haymarket Theatre; and in 1876 at the Lyceum Theatre by Henry Irving's company in Martin's version, starring Helena Faucit Martin in the title role and Irving as the Count Tristan.
A version of the play adapted by W.G. Wills was performed by Irving's company at the Lyceum in 1880 under the title "Iolanda", starring Ellen Terry in the title role and Irving as the Count.
An unrelated 1882 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was titled Iolanda, and Gilbert asked his producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, to request Irving's permission for use of the name.
A musical version of the play itself had already been created in 1871 as a cantata by Henry Smart, setting a verse adaptation by Frederick Enoch.[7]
The Russian translation was by Fyodor Miller.
An adaptation by Vladimir Zotov expanded the plot.
This version was used as the basis for the opera Iolanta, written by Tchaikovsky to a libretto by his brother, Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
It received its premiere on 18 December 1892 in St. Petersburg.
In this version much of the magical material in the original is eliminated, making Ebn Jahia more of a scientist than sorcerer.
A new character, Roberto, Duca di Borgogna, is introduced to replace Godofredo.
Roberto, Duca di Borgogna, becomes Iolanda's original unwilling fiancé, who happily relinquishes Iolanda to his friend FEDERICO II, conte di Vaudémont.
In 1893 a new musical version of the drama, by the light opera composer Julian Edwards, was published in America and performed with limited success on Broadway.
In 1913 a silent film of Hertz's play was made by the Thanhouser Company, starring Maude Fealy as Iolanthe.
It was also adapted in 1990 as the German film Das Licht der Liebe.
Notes[edit]
- Jump up ^ Wheeler, Victor (2011). "Dicapo Opera – Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta". www.classicalsource.com. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- Jump up ^ Sabine Baring-Gould, In Troubadour-land: A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc, 1891, p.180.
- Jump up ^ Martin, Theodore. King René's daughter: a Danish lyrical drama, W. Crosby and H.P. Nichols, 1850; Review of Chapman's translation, Christian Examiner, Volume 8; Volume 43, 1847, p. 460.
- Jump up ^ "Miss Ellen Terry's Benefit", The Era, 23 May 1880, p. 6; and Correspondence of Henry Irving, 6 June 1876, Henry Irving Foundation Centenary Project website, accessed 12 January 2012
- Jump up ^ "Miss Ellen Terry's Benefit", The Era, 23 May 1880, p. 6
- Jump up ^ Ainger, Michael. Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography, Oxford University Press (2002), p. 212; and Bradley, Ian. The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, Oxford University Press (1996), p. 364. Neither source records whether Irving ever responded.
- Jump up ^ Upton, George P. The Standard Cantatas, Echo, 2010 (reprint of 1888 edition), p. 193.
- Jump up ^ Julian Edwards, King René's Daughter, a lyric drama, John Church, 1893.
- Jump up ^ "Julian Edwards, A Composer of Light Opera who has recently become famous", Lewiston Evening Journal, 30 October 1896, p. 23.
- Jump up ^ King's Rene's Daughter, Thanhouser films .
- Jump up ^ Das Licht der Liebe (1990)
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